———

As I tried to relax while waiting for a customer or someone coming into the cafe, I was swiping my smartphone to waste some time. However, the sound was so annoying, the humming sound was softer than the hummingbird, yet it still annoyed me. Dumb I was, I had the eyes, the gift from Lilith. At once, I tried to use the eyes, I closed my eyes and tried to focus on what Lilith told me. As I opened my eyes, I could see some trails, like trails of pixie dust or something like that. It was green in colour.

The trails kept coming as if there was something left behind them or in front of the trails; however, there was nothing; the trails just magically appeared. I believed the trails were mana, where the eyes from Lilith could see mana, so it must be mana. Were these trails some environment mana? If it was the environment mana, why did the trail appear like fighter jet trails? It must appear naturally in the environment, not like manmade trails. I closed my eyes and changed back to my original eyes, because as I tried to look at the trails, the more I curious. I tried to ignore the humming sound and just swiped my smartphone.

Hours after hours, I kept sitting and playing with my smartphone, there was no one coming. As I tried to stand up, suddenly, I could hear some creaking noise from outside. It was the sound of the stairs outside, someone tried to climb. After some visitors or customers from demon, elf, human, and dryad races, it was the first time I heard some creaking noises where someone climbed to get here.

I walked to the back of the counter, as I prepared for this someone who climbed the stairs to get inside. The creaking sound became louder. Stopped. The sound of a creaking door being opened could be heard, and slowly, the appearance of this someone could be seen. It was a tall figure where its an upper body got covered by a cloak on the outside, a mantle underneath the cloak, and a hood. From the figure, I guessed the figure was a male one and not a human—finally, a male one in this world where it wasn't a human. The figure took a step to enter, and as the costumers before it, it looked around.

As the figure just stood in front of the door, I tried to say something, "Excuse me?"

The figure turned his head, and out of a sudden, "Arghh!!" Its shock made me startled. His shock made the hood fall back, revealing a face that was not human. Why do I know it must not be a human? Because there is no way, a human has the cleanest skin, face, and the most perfectly symmetrical features like that. Most importantly, he is so handsome—god damn so handsome. Was this the feeling of women at that time when they saw Joseph?

"*Ahem" I tried back to reality, and said, "Welcome to my shop!"

"A human?" the figure tilted its head.

"Yup, I am a human…Is there something wrong?"

"Nothing, It's just weird to see a human; make a house on a giant tree…"

"Hahaha…" I giggled, "So, I saw you, maybe curious about this place, right?"

The figure walked closer towards me and leaned at the counter, "Tell me about it!"

"As I said earlier, welcome to my shop! It is indeed a shop." I started to explain the figure about the jar of coffee and about the coffee itself because some people don't like me explaining it again or giving repetitive explanations about the same thing to a new creature.

"That's a unique one…And this is my first time, seeing this bean; what you call it again?"

"Coffee…"

"Coffee, coffee, coffee, huh…And you can make some more unique drinks based on these beans, huh…" The figure started to take a seat in front of the counter and took off the hood. Immediately, his hair was shown—a grey-whitish hair. I looked closer towards his ear, to determine what race this creature was. It was a humanoid ear, yet, no human as good-looking as this creature.

I asked, "May I ask you something, maybe this will be rude in your view?"

"What is that?"

"What are you?"

"What am I? You mean…"

"Race…"

"Ah! Race, yes…I am an elf…"

"An elf?" With humanoid ears? "I thought Elf has a different type of ear."

"You mean that pointy ear?"

"That one…"

"Well, I just don't want to use that type of ear, so I changed the appearance of the ear…"

"I don't know you can change it…"

"Forget about my appearance…You need to tell me about these things, called coffee…"

I gave him the menu where it's about all the unique drinks, "You can take a look at this first; if there is something catchy in your eyes, you can tell me…"

"Catchy in my eyes, huh… I like the sound of that." As he tried to look at the menu, his head turned to me, "Well, you haven't explained this menu thing to me…"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Ah yeah, I forgot about that," I explained to him about the menu and showed him the illustrations of the menu.

"That's a lot of drink for beans…This is the first time in my life, seen a complex beverages…"

"It's not that complex…"

As I watched him look at the menu, he suddenly put down the menu, and said, "I don't know what I want to drink; maybe I will stick with what the creator of these drinks made for me."

"I can do that, yet, do you like a sweet drink?" The elf before, Aella averse to sweetness…

"Sweet? You mean a drink with sugar?"

"Of course, what does sweet mean?"

"No… I am just surprised, that this place has sugars…You know, your place is out-nowhere, where there is nothing surrounding it…So…"

"I know what you mean, but I have some and somehow to gain sugars…"

"Well, if you say like that, I want the sweet…"

"I will make your drink…and…" He will be asking if I ask about…"Do you want some ice on your drink?"

I saw his expression surprised, here we go again…He started to ask about the ice, and I explained to him that I had some ice. Before I tried to make his drink, I asked him again, about the side dish for the coffee like cake, and surprise surprise, he asked again about Aella and Noella. I just answered it like I did towards Aella and Noella, however, I didn't show him the freezer because it would be too long to do that.

After all of that, he wanted a side dish of chocolate cake. As I was making his order, I could see he was still looking and glancing around the place. I was curious about his attire; he wore a mantle, cloak, and hood. It was like he had travelled around and far away.

I tried to ask about that while I was making his order, "So, are you travelling around?"

"Oh…" His head immediately turned towards me after glancing around, "Yeah, not travelling for specific…"

"Not travelling?"

"The exact thing is wandering…"

"Ah, wandering…You mean you are wandering around, but does that mean you don't know have any purpose."

"Of course, I have a purpose for my wandering."

"Wandering means walking aimlessly, so you don't have any purpose…"

"Aimlessly? What does that mean?"

"It means roaming around without any direction…"

"Without any direction, huh, well, that's not what I am doing right now, I have direction and purpose…"

As I brought his drink, an iced mocha, I said, "Forget about that, so what is your purpose of this wandering thing—immortality, a fountain of youth, or something you want to regain back?"

"Why does every human I encounter, have those thoughts, that I am wandering around for longevity?"

"Maybe because we are humans, we are short-living creatures different from you."

"However, there is a beautiful thing about short-living creatures…"

"Yeah, be dead…"

"NO! I mean their language…"

"Language, huh? Tell me about it!"

"Humans are short-living creatures, where their life span—"

"60-100 years, yeah, I know it, I am human…Just leap the introduction of humans!"

"Okay then, because of their life span, my life span can make some generations of humans. In these generations of humans, they would make some changes in their language. The new generation would learn from their progenitor or parents, however, these generations would change because of the environment around them. The older generation would do the same, yet they wouldn't change their language because of the environment since they did that when they were younger, do you understand?"

"Yeah, I understand, the older generation saw the new generation as them, yet they saw their language was more adequate than the new generation's new language, so they resisted the change of the language. On the other side, the new generation saw the new language as their identity, a way to differentiate themselves from the older generation. These would make a cycle of language and the evolution of language."

"There you go, you know it well…"

"Because I am a human…" This is an interesting take, back in my world, this phenomenon could be observed by looking at the elderly, and how they talk to someone. In my world, the local language has two types, one type for talking with someone you know well or someone younger, and the other type for talking with someone older, and someone you respect a lot. The new generation would forget the other type, so they don't know how to speak this language type, therefore, they use the national language, seeing these at some point, the local language could disappear, especially the other type. However, the elderly still use the other type whether they talk with younger people or their grandchildren, they are still talking with more manners and more respectful language, this can be seen as the culture and the environment are different from when they were still children. I said, "That's why Aella speaks differently than you…"

"Aella?" He tilted his head to me, "You mean, the high priestess?"

"Yes…"

"She has come here….Well, damn…"

"But, the other, Noella, she speaks like you…"

"Well damn again, Aella and Noella have come here…Noella is a trainee priestess for the high priestess position, the reason why Noella speaks like mine is that she sometimes travels to the human kingdom because of the tension of this world nowadays, so she has been mixed by the human language."

"Some dryads have come here, even they have interaction with some humans; why does their language still not change?"

His face was surprised, "Dryads? Have come here?"

"Yeah."

"I don't know those creatures could come here from far away…What do you think, the interaction between humans and dryads?"

"Based on their attitude, I believe not much good can come from it."

"There you go, you know it well…Dryad is an excluded creature, where they will stay all the time in their natural habitat, so I am surprised that they have come here…Their interaction with humans is so rare, yet they sometimes could be so mockery towards humans."

I brought his side dish, a chocolate cake. As in front of him, an iced mocha and a chocolate cake, he finally asked about them, "So what is this drink? And is this really the renowned pastry? I kept hearing the word of cake that only could be served among nobles."

I explained to him that his drink was a mocha, the sweetest drink among the other drinks, and of course about the chocolate cake. I saw him take a bite of the cake with the fork I gave him, his face was surprised as if about how sweet the cake was. After that, he took a sip of the iced mocha, and immediately his face showed a frown face.

He said, "You said this drink is the sweetest drink, why is so bitter?"

I answered, "Because you took a bite of the cake first. The sweetest of the coffee was overshadowed by the sweetest of the cake; it made the sweetest of the coffee gone and highlighted the bitterness of the coffee. Just wait for a few seconds! If you want to know the real taste of the coffee."